For The Love Of Port

David Spriggs wrote: Yes, with shipping it's still a great deal IMHO. Shipping and all taxes, duty, etc adds $10 a bottle.

Well done! $10 is great for Intl shipping per bottle. Did you get the foot lockers or OWC for them too?

I've found the there's at least one piece missing from the goodies in the foot locker unless the I buy Vesuvio with outer cardboard box is sealed.

Moses Botbol wrote:

David Spriggs wrote: Yes, with shipping it's still a great deal IMHO. Shipping and all taxes, duty, etc adds $10 a bottle.

Well done! $10 is great for Intl shipping per bottle. Did you get the foot lockers or OWC for them too?
I've found the there's at least one piece missing from the goodies in the foot locker unless the I buy Vesuvio with outer cardboard box is sealed.

I've paid as little as $8 per bottle for Intl shipping late last year (lower fuel costs helped). I always ship via temperature controlled sea container. It takes a long time to arrive, but is much cheaper than air freight. These Vesuvios might be here by December. My experience is that air freight can be hard on older wines because of the pressure difference in transit.

I'm not sure how these are packaged. Usually I ask, but this time I just closed my eyes and bought. I am expecting that they are just going to come in 12 bottle export cartons. The reason is that they weren't described as six pack cases... but that could have been an oversight. As long as the wine is in good condition I'll be happy This was part of a large offering. Multiple case lots of 1994, 1996, 1997, 2000, and 2003 all showed up in the merchant's inventory on the same day. I don't know who would be dumping all of these... I suspect another merchant or wholesaler.... possibly from auction.... but I watch the UK auctions pretty closely and don't recall these being offered.

I have brought in many case of 1994 Vesuvio from the UK in the past and all of them have been pristine foot lockers still sealed in the cardboard. Well... they are opened up in the UK by the consolidator to apply the required US slip labels (warning label) to them before export. All the goodies have been in them I can't say that about the bottles I've purchased at US auctions. Last month I bought 3 six packs - 1998, 2000, 2003 in a single lot at auction. You would have thought that they would at least be OWC, but they were just in cardboard. I have also purchased OWC Vesuvio at auction, but as you noted, most if not all of the goodies were missing.

By the way, Sokolin is offering 1994 Vesuvio for $64 - which I consider to be very fairly priced.

The vesuvio arrived at the consolidator today. It turns out that they are all in 6 pack foot lockers.

David Spriggs wrote:The vesuvio arrived at the consolidator today. It turns out that they are all in 6 pack foot lockers.

Sweet, congratulations!

I picked up a bottle each of 97 Cockburns ($44) and 99 Warres LBV ($22). Mostly because they are being cleared out, I've never tried them and I might want to buy a few more of them for the cellar.

Dan

dans wrote:I picked up a bottle each of 97 Cockburns ($44) and 99 Warres LBV ($22). Mostly because they are being cleared out, I've never tried them and I might want to buy a few more of them for the cellar.

Dan

Dan,

Good prices on both.

I caved today and bought a bottle I have not had in many months - 20 yr old Taylor. Slightly chilled on a hot day today, it was the perfect remedy for what ailed me today.

The Graham Malvedos is queued up for the weekend and the VT - TNs to come!! :)

-T

Todd Pettinger wrote:20 yr old Taylor

Oh... Nice bottle of Tawny... Sometimes a better tawny port is all you need!

David Spriggs wrote:

Todd Pettinger wrote:20 yr old Taylor

Oh... Nice bottle of Tawny... Sometimes a better tawny port is all you need!

Yes, especially chilled on a warm day

I just picked up an '85 Fonseca and an '85 Graham for a gift, and added a magnum of '94 Graham to the order for myself. :)

Just purchased a 1970 Fonseca (one more item off my wish list) and a 1983 Fonseca.

They only had 1 bottle of each, so I will now agonize over whether to cellar or drink.

Any suggestions regarding that decision would be appreciated.

-- Gary

Gary Richardson wrote:Just purchased a 1970 Fonseca (one more item off my wish list) and a 1983 Fonseca.

They only had 1 bottle of each, so I will now agonize over whether to cellar or drink.

Any suggestions regarding that decision would be appreciated.

-- Gary

Cellar the 1970 and drink the 1983. I say that as once you try the 1983 Fonseca you'll understand why it is sometimes better to drink the younger wine.

Just picked up a case of 2003 Dow for $40/per. Dow is my wife's favorite producer.

Dan

dans wrote:Just picked up a case of 2003 Dow for $40/per. Dow is my wife's favorite producer.

Dan

Wow.... that's a great deal! Congrats!

Andy Velebil wrote:

Gary Richardson wrote:Just purchased a 1970 Fonseca (one more item off my wish list) and a 1983 Fonseca.

They only had 1 bottle of each, so I will now agonize over whether to cellar or drink.

Any suggestions regarding that decision would be appreciated.

-- Gary

Cellar the 1970 and drink the 1983. I say that as once you try the 1983 Fonseca you'll understand why it is sometimes better to drink the younger wine.

Listen to Andy, he knows better than I, but I will say this: if you do decide to drink the 70 now, it is drinking fantastic. a win-win decision! Just be sure and include a TN for the rest of us!

dans wrote:Just picked up a case of 2003 Dow for $40/per. Dow is my wife's favorite producer.

Dan

Very nice deal and the 2003 Dow I liked very much. That price would make me like it a whole lot more!!!

Todd

There's a whole bunch of Dows up for auction at Brentwood Wines for what seem to me to be really good starting bids. They have a number of other older bottles from other producers, too.

Just don't out-bid me on the '70 Taylor.

Todd Pettinger wrote:

Andy Velebil wrote:

Gary Richardson wrote:Just purchased a 1970 Fonseca (one more item off my wish list) and a 1983 Fonseca.

They only had 1 bottle of each, so I will now agonize over whether to cellar or drink.

Any suggestions regarding that decision would be appreciated.

-- Gary

Cellar the 1970 and drink the 1983. I say that as once you try the 1983 Fonseca you'll understand why it is sometimes better to drink the younger wine.

Listen to Andy, he knows better than I, but I will say this: if you do decide to drink the 70 now, it is drinking fantastic. a win-win decision! Just be sure and include a TN for the rest of us!

Thanks for the recommendation. I will do as suggested, as hard as it may be to hold the 1970 without drinking it right away.

-- Gary

Just won 3 bottles from Brentwood Wines:
2 x 1970 Taylor
1 x 1977 Graham

These were part of an unusually large Port offering (by Brentwood standards, that is) in which virtually all of the Ports offered had what I thought were pretty good opening prices. There were a few 1963s starting below $100/bottle, for example. Many bottles of Dow and Warre spanning 1963-1985.

I also bid on a 1963 Fonseca, but ultimately lost out because it just got a little too expensive for me. It sold for $230, which is a lot but still far below the typical retail price of $350 or more.

Congratulations Glenn! I was about to bid on the 1970 and then saw that you had bid.... so decided to not compete against you
-Dave-